Last Saturday saw our Cathedral Choir give a stunning concert performance of their new CD ‘Rise Up and Wonder’ in the beautiful setting of The Holy Name RC Church, Manchester.
Together with Susan Lomas, Deputy Lieutenant, Mary-Liz Walker, High Sheriff of Greater Manchester, together with consort, Peter Walker, Gina Reynolds, Ceremonial Mayor of Salford, and Bishop John Arnold, the choir were supported by a warm audience including parishioners, family and friends, and local musicians. It was particularly delightful to welcome composers Tamsin Jones and Gail Randall to the concert, whose music both appears on the CD.
Throughout the concert, conductor, Alex Patterson, spoke about the need to diversify choral music within Cathedral music lists, highlighting the ground breaking work of Multitude of Voyces whose three volumes of choral music composed by women has made it easier for choirs to add high quality music for the liturgy into their repertoire.
A recent review in The Tablet also reinforced this as one of the main reasons behind the recording. Alexandra Coghlan described it as ‘a statement of intent: it’s a line in the sand.’
The concert also saw the launch of the Salford Cathedral Music Foundation by Cathedral Dean, Canon Michael Jones, who told the audience, ‘the aim of the Music Foundation is to help children, young people, adults, from all backgrounds in Salford to come together and to take part in the Cathedral’s liturgical life.’
Canon Michael urged supporters to consider contributing to the work of the Music Foundation by giving a one off donation or to set up regular giving.
The concert finished with Judith Weir’s uplifting ‘My Guardian Angel’ with the audience invited to join in with the repeated ‘alleluia’ refrain, led by our Girls’ Choir and Cambiata Boys’ Choir.
The Music Department wishes to thank Fr Brendan Callaghan SJ for his hospitality in allowing us to hold our concert at The Holy Name, and to Maura Pasini and Cath Astin for their invaluable support behind the scenes. We are grateful to Franziska Tremper-Jeschke for photographing the event for us.
Bringing our busy weekend to a close, it was our Children’s Choir who were leading the singing for Sunday’s 11am Mass with Marco Frisina’s ‘Anima Christi’, ‘This is our faith’ by Annie Conlon & Peter Rose, and the ‘Mass of St Joseph’ by Alex Patterson.
The CD is available to buy after Sunday 9.15am and 11am Masses from the Cathedral Piety Stall, or from Cathedral Centre Bookshop.
